Literature / My Weird School

The first book in the series.

My Weird School is a long-running humorous kids' chapter book series. The first book, Miss Daisy is Crazy!, was published in 2004.

It is about the misadventures of AJ, a reluctant learner who hates school, and the various weird staff members that populate Ella Mentry School. AJ is accompanied by his friends (and enemies) nerdy Michael Robinson, Ryan Dole, Andrea Young, Emily Pucket, and later Neil Crouch and Alexia Juarez.

The series currently consists of five arcs. My Weird School introduced AJ and his fellow classmates as they navigate second grade together. My Weird School Daze has the kids begin third grade with a teacher that also happens to be an alien. My Weirder School introduces a new main character to the fold: the tomboyish Alexia. My Weirdest School continues the students' third grade with a brand new teacher. And My Weirder-est School show the kids' final adventures in third grade. A sixth arc, My Weirdtastic School, will begin in 2023, with it set to begin the kids' fourth grade tenures.

It is written by Dan Gutman and illustrated by Jim Paillot. Nickelodeon is developing an adaptation of the books.

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My name is AJ and I hate listing examples:

• Academic Alpha Bitch: Downplayed. Andrea Young is the smartest of the class, and though not mean, she is the bossiest of the class.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • "Back to School, Weird Kids Rule" and "My Weird School Goes To The Museum" are told from Andrea's point of view.
  • "Class Pet Mess" is told from Alexia's point of view.
  • "Teamwork Trouble" is told from Ryan's point of view.
• A Dog Ate My Homework: In "Ms. Coco is Loco!", Neil claims that his dog ate his poem. Needless to say, no one believes this, especially since Neil doesn't even have a dog.
• Action Figure Justification: In the book Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal, AJ is bringing his Striker Smith toy to show-and-tell. Andrea derisively calls the toy a doll, and AJ insists that it's an action figure. Andrea says that action figures are dolls for boys.
• Adults Are Useless: To say that 'adults are useless' in the My Weird School universe is a massive understatement. Every single adult is either a Manchild or legitimately dangerous (such as Ms. Lizzy).
• Affably Evil: Mayor Hubble frequently gets arrested, but he gets time off for good behavior.
• All Elections Are Serious Business: The class president election in "Mayor Hubble is In Trouble" is treated the same as a legitimate political election. AJ and Andrea, the candidates, have to kiss babies and publish propaganda against each other.
• Ambiguously Brown: We're not sure what ethnic group AJ is supposed to be.
• Ambiguously Human: Mr. Granite blurs the lines between this and Human Aliens. The kids speculate that despite looking like a human, he's an alien from another planet.
• Art Evolution: In the first books in the series, the characters' faces were rounded, but the later installments flatten them immensely, therefore, making them look less off-model at times.
• Beach Episode: "Mr. Sunny is Funny" takes place on summer vacation. Mr. Sunny is the lifeguard.
• Big Eater: This is Ryan's primary character trait. He will eat anything, even stuff that isn't food. One famous instance of this is when he ate the seat cushion in "Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal".
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: AJ seems to be aware that he is in a book. He often taunts the readers by telling them they'll have to read the next chapter to find something out.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: AJ has been shown on several occasions to be quite clever, and he's even in the Gifted And Talented program, but he doesn't put in the effort due to his dislike of school.
• Butt-Monkey: Emily goes through a lot of slapstick. Getting her Halloween costume ripped off to getting hit in the head with a piñata stick are stand-outs.
• Catchphrase: AJ - "My name is AJ and I hate X", "So is your face", "Why can't [a bunch of heavy objects] drop on [Andrea's] head?", "Everybody laughed, even though I didn't say anything funny", "But it won't be easy!" and "I wish I could run away to Antarctica with the penguins."
• Chekhov's Skill: In "Mrs. Cooney is Loony", AJ sees a poster in the nurse's office of the Heimlich maneuver. He later uses the Heimlich maneuver to save Andrea when she choked.
• Chick Magnet: In "Mr. Jack is a Maniac", all the women and girls are attracted to Mr. Jack.
  • "Oh Valentine's, We've Lost Our Minds" introduces French foreign exchange student Pierre, a womanizer who manages to woo all of the girls in A.J.'s class, including Andrea and Alexia.
• Child Popstar: Cray-Z, who first appeared in "Deck the Halls, We're Off The Walls!".
• Child Prodigy: Andrea is incredibly smart for her age and has many talents. AJ is this too on account of being Brilliant, but Lazy. Both are in the Gifted and Talented program.
• Christmas Episode:
  • "Miss Holly is Too Jolly!", which is about the Spanish teacher.
  • "Deck the Halls, We're Off the Walls!" is one of the special holiday edition books. AJ and the gang go to the mall to buy Christmas gifts and run into a Child Popstar named Cray-Z.
• Class Trip:
  • In "Ms. Krup Cracks Me Up!", the class goes on a trip to the Natural History Museum.
  • In "Ms. Hannah is Bananas!", the gang briefly goes on a trip to an art museum.
• Conforming OOC Moment: Whenever Andrea, usually the teacher's pet, tags along on AJ's schemes, such as sneaking into Mrs. Roopy's office or spying on Mrs. Cooney.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty:
  • Coach Hyatt, the local football coach, behaves more like a drill sergeant in the military than a peewee football coach.
  • Whenever Dr. Carbles is the substitute principal, he treats the students as if they're soldiers by constantly shouting at them, and making them march in the playground like a military parade.
• Dumb Blonde: Emily is shown to be just as gullible and ditzy as AJ. She once thought that she actually saw a cartoon character in real life despite the fact that someone was wearing a costume. When AJ, of all people, points this out, she stands firm to her belief and doesn't listen to him.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The earlier books didn't start with AJ saying that he hates school or something else.
• Eat the Evidence: When AJ and his friends are Passing Notes in Class discussing whether Mrs. Cooney is a spy, Ryan eats the note after he receives it to hide the evidence of their conspiracy.
• Embarrassing First Name: AJ would rather die than let people find out about his first name, Arlo Jervis. When Andrea reveals it to the class after he dumps mashed potatoes on her head, he runs straight home. That being said, no one outside of Andrea ,who keeps referring to AJ as "Arlo", seems to care and still refer to him as "AJ"
• Et Tu, Brute?: When Emily messes up a word while singing "Home on the Range," every kid laughs at her, even her best friend Andrea.
• Every Episode Ending: AJ ends every book by predicting future events and saying "But it won't be easy!"
• Extracurricular Enthusiast: Andrea mentions taking a multitude of different classes after school.
• Extreme Omnivore: In "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal", Ryan is so hungry that he eats a portion of the seat cushion.
• Fictionary: Mrs. Kormel, the bus driver, has her own made-up language. "Bingle boo" means "Hello", "Limpus kidoodle" means "sit down", and "Zingy zip" means "be quiet".
• Foil: Andrea is designed to be AJ's complete opposite. She loves school, girly things, and generally being well-behaved, unlike AJ.
• Food Fight: The climax of "Ms. LaGrange Is Strange" is in the form of a school-wide food fight in the cafeteria that even the teachers get in on. This ruins Ella Mentry's reputation as the cleanest school in the district.
• Footnote Fever: Since My Weirder School, footnotes are often used for gags. In fact, page 77◊ of "Mr. Jack is a Maniac" has a footnote to a YouTube video link. It was a Monty Python skit about self-defence against fruit, but it was later taken down for copyright.
• Genius Ditz: Despite A.J. being shown as dumb, at times he can show that he can be smart and is able to get into the Gifted And Talented program.
• Given Name Reveal: Andrea blackmails AJ by threatening to reveal his real name to the class and goes through with it at the end of the book.
• Goofy Print Underwear: In "Mrs. Lilly is Silly," the school newspaper spreads rumors about Mr. Klutz not wearing any underwear. Furious, he proves he does by pulling down his pants and flashing his underwear at the class - they're boxers with hearts on them.
• Halloween Episode:
  • "Mrs. Patty is Batty!", which is about the spooky school secretary.
  • "Miss Mary Is Scary!" is about Mr. Klutz's goth daughter becoming a student-teacher.
  • "It's Halloween, I'm Turning Green!" is one of the holiday special edition books.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": The kids have this reaction when somebody says something funny, like 'but' (butt) and 'duty' (doody).
• Identical Stranger:
  • It is noted that Andrea and Ms. Todd look very similar. Ms. Todd is also similar to Andrea personality-wise.
  • AJ looks identical to Cray-Z. In fact, AJ disguises himself as Cray-Z in order to help him get away from his fangirls.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The first series were all titled "[school staff member who's the focus of the book] is [synonym of "crazy" that rhymes with that character's name]!" Examples include "Mr. Klutz is Nuts!", "Ms. Hannah is Bananas!", and Mrs. Yonkers is Bonkers!" The rhyme scheme continued for the other books but branched out beyond the "crazy" synonyms.
• Inelegant Blubbering: This happens quite often when a group of characters cry over something that makes them really emotional.
• In-Series Nickname: Neil is referred to as 'the nude kid'. The reason for this is explained in "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal". He was the new kid in school and the bus driver, Mrs. Kormel, told the kids at the front of the bus to tell this to everyone else on board. This gets corrupted into the nude kid, leading AJ and his friends to think that Neil is a nudist. In the end, Neil is fully clothed.
• Laborious Laces: Michael is notorious for never tying his shoes.
• The Lad-ette: Alexia is a tomboy who exclusively hangs out with boys, and is just as rude and boorish as AJ and his friends.
• Literal-Minded: AJ takes everything literally, such as metaphors. One recurring metaphor is when a teacher is on "the last straw" and AJ wonders where they keep the straws.
• Loony Librarian: Ms. Roopy is the school librarian who not only dresses up as but legitimately believes that she is several famous people like George Washington, Johnny Appleseed, Neil Armstrong, etc.
• Malicious Slander: In "Mrs. Lilly is Silly", the kids publish a bunch of lies about the teachers in the school newspaper, and defend this out of "freedom of the press". They accuse Mr. Docker of being a domestic abuser, Ms. Yonkers of being a pyromaniac/arsonist, Ms. Laney of being an alcoholic, Ms. Coco of being a car thief, and Mrs. Patty of being an animal killer.
• Mall Santa: In "Deck the Halls, We're Off the Walls!", the kids are at the mall and visit the Mall Santa, who turns out to be Mr. Klutz trying to earn an extra wage for the holidays.
• Manchild: Pretty much all of the adults have eccentric personalities that make them act like children. Miss Daisy doesn't know math, Mr. Klutz likes to do crazy stunts as incentives, Ms. Roopy LARPs as several famous people of history and literature, and Ms. Hannah collects garbage to make art out of it.
• Mayor Pain: Mayor Hubble is the closest thing the series has to a Big Bad. In "Mr. Burke is Berserk," gold is discovered in the playground. Mayor Hubble attempts to steal it but is caught and arrested. After getting time off for good behavior, he cheats in the election, hoping to be re-elected for mayor in "Mayor Hubble is in Trouble," but is arrested again.
• Mondegreen Gag:
  • In one book, Emily sings "Home on the Range", only she says "cantaloupe" rather than "antelope" during the "Where the deer and the antelope play" line. AJ teases her for it and she starts wailing.
  • In "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal", the kids hear that they're going to have a new kid, and they mishear "new" as "nude". As such, they think that the new student Neil is a nudist. Even after they learn that he's not naked after all, they continue calling Neil "the nude kid" as an inside joke.
• Mourning an Object: In "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal," AJ's Striker Smith action figure had its head fall off. The kids hold a funeral for it.
  "Ashes to ashes, dust to dusted"
  "We buried Striker Smith, because he was busted"
  "He was really cool, but now he's dead"
  "It's hard to live when you don't have a head"
• Naked People Are Funny: Much of the humour in "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal!" derives from the kids believing that Neil is a nudist.
• Napoleon Delusion: Mrs. Roopy, the school librarian, possibly has Dissociative Identity Disorder because she keeps pretending to be multiple different historical figures (George Washington, Neil Armstrong, etc), and genuinely believes she is them. When A.J. tries to expose the truth to her in "Mrs. Roopy is Loopy" by showing her the George Washington costume she wore, she started to cry because she thought it meant the real George Washington was running around naked.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: The book "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal" has a scene in which AJ and his friends teach each other swear words while on the bus, but it's never specified exactly which swear words they are.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Mr. Louie, the school crossing guard, is a hippie who behaves like he's still in the 1960s.
• New Year, Same Class: When the gang moves up from second grade to third grade, they remain together, although they have a new teacher (Mr. Granite).
• Nice Girl: Emily serves as this. She's portrayed as sensitive and Prone to Tears, but is tender, caring of others' safety, and even if AJ mocks her, she's never rude back and tries to be friendly to him. She's even distraught when she accidentally makes Miss Klute, a dog everyone loves, almost die because of her sharing chocolate with everyone.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Emily (nice), Alexia (mean), and Andrea (in between).
• Nobody Likes a Tattletale: In "Miss Child Has Gone Wild", Andrea informs Mr. Granite that AJ and Alexia are passing notes in class, and Mr. Granite just tells her not to be a tattletale.
• Non-Indicative Name: Mr. Klutz isn't The Klutz.
• Old Windbag: Mr. Loring, the music teacher before Mr. Hynde, was a very old man prone to droning on and on, boring his students.
• One of the Boys: Alexia exclusively hangs out with the boys, and AJ describes her as 'cool for a girl'.
• One-Paragraph Chapter: Parodied in a few books, where a chapter lasts just one or two pages. It says that if you're reading this because your teachers made you read "a chapter", then now you're done, and you can rub it in their face.
• Playground Song:
  • In "Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal", the kids sing "99 Bottles of Beer" while on the bus ride to school. They sing 'pop' instead of beer because kids can't drink beer. AJ remarks that one time he had a sip of his dad's beer and it was gross.
  • AJ hates the song "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?"
• Politicians Kiss Babies: In "Mayor Hubble is in Trouble," AJ is running for class president, and as part of his campaign, is forced to kiss babies. He finds it disgusting.
• Precision F-Strike: "Dr. Nicholas is Ridiculous" makes liberal use of "crap" and variations when discussing Thomas Crapper. While 'crap' isn't necessarily a cuss word, it's not one you would normally see in a children's book.
• Precocious Crush: AJ had a crush on the school nurse Mrs. Cooney, who is already married.
• Prone to Tears: In every book, Emily runs out of the room crying at even the slightest provocation.
• Punny Name: Ella Mentry Elementary School.
• Puppy Love: It is hinted at multiple times that AJ and Andrea have crushes on each other.
• Putting the "Pal" in Principal: Mr. Klutz is an approachable principal who makes it a point to treat his students with kindness.
• Ridiculously Alive Undead: In "Miss Mary is Scary!", the trope is discussed in the beginning when AJ believes that ghosts are using the bathroom because of the automatic sinks, toilets, and hand dryers. At the end of the book, this turns out to be true when AJ finds a ghost coming out of a stall in the men's room.
  AJ: I didn't know ghosts use the bathroom.
  Ghost: Now you know.
  AJ: Do you eat kids for lunch?
  Ghost: No.
  AJ: Good.
  Ghost: We eat kids for dinner, and soon it will be dinnertime.
• Running Away to Cry: Emily frequently runs out of rooms to cry.
• Running Gag:
  • AJ taking things literally and everyone laughing at him.
  • The kids speculate that the school staff member of the book is actually an evil person.
  • Andrea boasting about her extracurricular activities.
  • Emily running out of the room crying.
  • The kids laughing at a funny word.
  • AJ's friends teasing him about his apparent crush on Andrea.
  • AJ mishearing "violence" as "violins".
  • The eleventh chapter of the math textbook, which is always interrupted by something.
• School Is for Losers: This is AJ's mindset when it comes to school.
• School Nurse: Mrs. Cooney is the attractive school nurse who all the boys have a crush on. However, she is shown to have absurd remedies and eventually turns out to be a government spy.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A.J. runs home from school on a few occasions, such as when Andrea reveals his Embarrassing First Name to the class and when he does his president presentation on Benjamin Franklin only to find out he was never a president.
• Shout-Out: Quite a few actually.
  • A.J.'s first real name is a reference to Arlo Guthrie.
  • Alexia's shirt has "Led Zeppelin" written on it.
  • In "Mr. Harrison Is Embarrassin'!", 45 Beatles song titles show up as easter eggs within the character's dialogue, owing to the book's title character sharing his last name with one of the band's members (something that is discussed within the book itself).
• Sixth Ranger: At the start of the series, the main kids were AJ, Michael, Ryan, Andrea and Emily, followed by Neil and Alexia.
• Springtime for Hitler: In "Ms. Coco is Loco", AJ writes a disgusting poem so he could be kicked out of the Gifted and Talented Program. It backfires as Ms. Coco loves it as always.
• Squee: The girls are prone to screaming "EEEEK!" when something makes them really excited (such as wedding proposals, being asked out on a date by a cute boy, seeing their favourite pop stars, getting to be on television, etc.)
• The Stool Pigeon: Naturally Andrea is this, being the resident teacher's pet. She's always first to tattle on AJ if he does something wrong. She's a mix between Obedient Olga, Obnoxious Olivia, Petty Patty, and Snobby Sara.
• Suntan Stencil: Mr. Sunny deliberately tanned the word "Sunny" on his back with pieces of paper.
• Teacher's Pet: Andrea loves to suck up to the teachers, and even admits to it when AJ calls her one in "My Weird School Goes To The Museum".
• Teasing the Substitute Teacher: In "Ms. Todd is Odd", the kids deliberately mess with the substitute teacher Ms. Todd for their own amusement. This drives her nuts and she runs out of the school, never to be seen again.
• Tomboy: Alexa is one of these. This is even lampshaded in her debut, where Andrea outright calls her one (something which Alexa reaffirms proudly).
• Token Black Friend: Ryan is the only black friend AJ has.
• Token Good Teammate: Emily serves as this for the kids. She's the only one who does not make fun of the kids' flaws and wants the best for everyone around her.
• Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Alexia wears a backwards baseball cap.
• Town Girls: Out of the three main girls, Alexia is the butch, Emily is the femme, and Andrea is neither.
• Unreliable Illustrator: The text often says that Emily has red hair, but the book covers always show Emily with blonde hair.
• Valentine's Day Episode: "Mr. Louie is Screwy" takes place on Valentine's Day and features the wedding of Ms. Daisy and Mr. Macky.
  • The second Valentine's Day book, "Oh Valentine's, We've Lost Our Minds" introduces a French boy named Pierre, whom A.J. fights with over the affection of Andrea.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The main seven kids are best buds most of the time, but they can have moments of being mean to each other or making fun of each other, such as calling each other a 'dumbhead' or teasing someone (usually A.J.) being in love with another (also usually Andrea).
• Wacky Homeroom: There's a kid who hates school, a kid who loves school, a kid who can't tie his shoes, a kid who WILL eat anything and everything, a tomboy, a "nude" kid, and a crybaby. To say nothing of the teachers.
• Wedding Episode: In "Mr. Louie is Screwy", Ms. Daisy gets married to Mr. Macky. AJ tries to interrupt the ceremony because he still wants Ms. Daisy to be his teacher.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The girls in AJ's class (except for Alexia) get scared easily by things like rats, bugs, reptiles, the dark, and other things a typical girly girl might be afraid of.
• With Friends Like These...: AJ's friends constantly tease each other. He frequently says that if they weren't his friends, he would hate them.
• Written Roar: "Eeeek!" is the usually preferred method of screaming in the books, especially when it's coming from the female characters.

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